Standing in front of American and Wisconsin flags, former Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello played to an audience of 4,000 Monday at Monona Terrace at a performance set up by AFSCME to oppose the budget repair bill.

"Whenever there's an economic hardship, [Republicans] take advantage of that to ram through some legislation that's going to roll back decades, if not a century, of social progress," Morello said. "But they miscalculated. They miscalculated because they tried to begin doing that in Wisconsin."

Earlier in the day, Morello held a rally with Rise Against guitarist Tim McIlrath at the steps of the Capitol with thousands of protesters, despite poor weather conditions.

**SNIP**

"The backbone of your state senators, who headed to my sweet home state of Illinois, changed my mind about [Democrats]," Morello said. "I'm like, at last somebody's got a spine, man, come on. They can stay as long as they want. Illinois is nice, man."

Morello also read an e-mail that he received from one of the principal organizers of the protests in Cairo. The letter expressed support for the Wisconsin protesters and advocated for solidarity: "Breathe deeply, Wisconsin, because justice is in the air."

"No matter what Gov. Walker, the Mumbarak of the Midwest, says, this land is your land," Morello said before singing a rendition of "This Land is Your Land" with McIlrath and other musicians. "Never give up and never give in!"

Are you kidding me with the misleading headline? “Famous” rockers? And they cite Tom Morrello from Rage Against the Machine? Come the hell on! His group basically was a rapper who could not sing, who spoke commie-infused protest lyrics over some distorted guitar noises. Oooooo, “famous” rocker, my ass.

I guess Wisconsin has been too embarrassed over the decades to bill itself as the “Union State” but from what I’ve recently been told, that’s just what it is. It would be quite a symbolic squish to have it even reined in in that place.

Five thousand people squeezed into the Monona Terrace exhibition hall to hear Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Wayne Kramer of the MC5 curse Walkers plan to undercut public employee unions. Walker got called every name in the book  motherfucker, asshole  but the acoustic show was still overwhelmingly peaceful and positive.

13
posted on 02/22/2011 4:12:57 AM PST
by Libloather
(The epitome of civility.)

They are all squealing hogs...squealing because there is no more slop in the trough. Squeal all you want, piggies...enough fattening. The next step is hams and bacon. Bwaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

America touts itself as the land of the free, but the number one freedom that you and I have is the freedom to enter into a subservient role in the workplace. Once you exercise this freedom you've lost all control over what you do, what is produced, and how it is produced. And in the end, the product doesn't belong to you. The only way you can avoid bosses and jobs is if you don't care about making a living. Which leads to the second freedom: the freedom to starve.  Tom Morello

I guess we could go back to the Haight-Ashbury days when everyone was on drugs and welfare. I mean, that system worked out so well... /SAR

If you haven't heard of “Rage Against the Machine” than you were not listening to new music in the 90’s. All 4 of their studio albums went platinum. Sure they are socialist scumbags without a doubt. In the case of Tom Morello he's not just a socialist scumbag he's also a talented socialist scumbag. Not that Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel aren't equally socialist. Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler are certainly more talented than Tom Morello.

38
posted on 02/22/2011 5:52:57 AM PST
by Durus
(Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do. Thomas Jefferson)

As to your pal and his 'little ditty' I wish him luck -- back in the good old days of rock, most now classic rock songs are nothing but 'little ditties' written to three chords. Mostly in the I, IV, V Chord Progression (or a variation thereof).

But I don't even know if 'Rock' exists any longer. The closest shown on TV or played the radio (I can find anyway) now is 'modern' Country music - or 'Tex-Mex' like from The Mavericks, but they broke up, dang. So now I stick to Blues and 'Classic rock' (really love the Blues)

Rock was always criticized back then by 'experts' for being 'simplistic'. While true in most cases, it wasn't for the likes of Chuck Berry. That man can (could) play Chords and Riffs you need fingers 7" long to play :-) Ditto for some of the Beatles later work - George Harrison was greatly under appreciated as a guitarist. And so is Keith Richards.(1)

(1) Thanks to his drug use that's all anyone thinks of when 'Keith Richards' is mentioned. But, that's all on him.

47
posted on 02/22/2011 7:15:39 AM PST
by Condor51
(Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a Congressman. But I repeat myself. [Mark Twain])

*If you haven’t heard of Rage Against the Machine than you were not listening to new music in the 90s. All 4 of their studio albums went platinum. *

A lot of garbage music sold a lot of copies in the 90s. Morello cannot write melodies, which is why no one remembers his music.

And if he thinks he’s going to win over the mushy middle of Wisconsinites by praising Illinois, he’s mistaken. Most Wisconsinites detest Illinois and its denizens, who travel north to speed up and down the WI highways like maniacs on their way to their “summer retreats”. There’s a reason why they’re called FIBs, comrade.

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